The Charge

Opening Statement

Facts of the Case

Steven Russell (Jim Carrey, The Number 23) is living a reasonably
mainstream life. He's a cop, he has a pretty wife, Debbie (Leslie Mann,
Knocked Up), and a daughter he adores.

But Steven has a secret: he's gay. At first, he merely has trysts on the
side, but after a near-fatal accident, decides to start living his real
life.

So Steven moves to Florida, finds himself a handsome boyfriend (Rodrigo
Santoro, 300), and starts living the dream. Unfortunately, as Steven soon
finds out, the dream -- at least, his idea of the dream -- is expensive. So
Steven becomes a con man, first faking small accidents for insurance
settlements, and later moving on to things such as credit card fraud.

The law comes a-calling, and Steven finds himself in prison, where his
con-artist skills help him adjust pretty well.

Then he meets Phillip Morris (Ewan McGregor, Trainspotting), a sweet,
sensitive, vulnerable man doing time on a theft of service charge. Steven falls
hard for Phillip, and his attentiveness and charm win the inmate over. Soon,
Steven and Phillip are blissfully sharing a cell, with all the amenities Steven
can rustle up for them.

When Steven gets released, he wants Phillip out, too, so it's back to the
con games -- Steven pretends he's a lawyer, and talking to the right people,
gets Phillip sprung. He then gladhands his way into a high-paying corporate job,
and compensates his having to deal with "the most boring people in the
world" by overcompensating himself.

The gentle, unassuming Phillip knows little about Steven, except that he's
protective, loving, and a good provider. What he doesn't realize is that
Steven's idea of "good providing" means continuing to scam -- people,
corporations, even the government -- to make sure he and Phillip have the best
life other people's money can buy.

The Evidence

Charming, inventive, and very, very funny, I Love You, Phillip Morris
is a tremendously entertaining caper with a sometimes sly, sometimes raunchy,
always dead-on sense of humor. Based on the real-life exploits of Steven Jay
Russell -- and hewing pretty closely to the actual narrative, from all accounts
-- the film moves smoothly from one clever situation to the next.

Despite its decidedly contemporary subject matter, there's a classic '60s
feel about it, almost a play on the cheery, slightly smarmy, Technicolor
rom-and-sexcoms of that era -- from an opening scene that gives way to an
extended flashback, leading back to the first scene three-quarters of the way
through; to its glossy, colorful look and tropical loungie-sounding score; to
its over-the-top situations and frequent sex jokes. It's a motif that helps the
film succeed as a comedy, an adventure, and a love story; and gives the edge a
refreshingly sweet aftertaste.

As Steven, Jim Carrey has his best role since Eternal Sunshine of the
Spotless Mind. Playing a con man who, as Steven himself laments, doesn't
really know who he actually is, Carrey gets to role-play a variety of
characters. He's "good husband" Steven, church-going community guy
with wife and child; he's Steven the abandoned child, tracking down his birth
mother, with disastrous results; he's Steven the flamboyant-spending gay guy who
knows everyone worth knowing; he's the smartest guy on the cell block, a fake
lawyer, a faux business executive, a man broken by illness -- and Carrey plays
all these Stevens without resorting to the broad strokes and mugging that long
ago became his trademark.

Mostly though, he's a man who desperately wants to be in love and to be
loved back -- but extravagantly, heroically, the old-movie type of love filled
with romantic idylls and high-end living. Unfortunately, Steven's not to the
manor born, but he's something of a criminal genius, and outrageous scam after
outrageous scam allow Steven to build -- at least temporarily -- the life he
wants.

Wickedly funny as it is, above all else, I Love You, Phillip Morris
is a love story, and Carrey and McGregor have a gentle, natural chemistry that
most rom-com couples can only dream of. While Carrey has the showier role,
McGregor -- affecting a southern drawl and blond locks -- more than holds his
own as the sweet, naïve Phillip, who fears -- rightly -- than Steven's
opulent lifestyle is just too good to be true.

The film has a lot of fun tweaking stereotypes, particularly gay
stereotypes, but it's done with such good-natured flair that it never comes
across as condescending or offensive. Particularly funny are the scenes in which
Steven first moves to Florida -- where he seems intent on emulating a gay
lifestyle magazine from the early '90s -- and his prison romance with Phillip,
complete with gestures of affection like having another con beaten up for acting
offensively and a Johnny Mathis-scored couples montage.

This film looks absolutely terrific on Blu-ray. I Love You, Phillip
Morris is a bright, colorful film, and the transfer is beautifully rendered.
The picture is sharp with no noticeable defects, colors are vivid, detail is
excellent, and there's an appreciable amount of depth. The DTS 5.1 audio track
offers a fine representation of dialogue, music, and effects.

Supplement-wise, we get a commentary with the directors, producers, the DP,
and a gaffer; all of whom have entertaining tales of the making of the film.
There's also a featurette, "The Making of I Love You, Phillip
Morris," in which directors Glenn Ficarra and John Requa -- who wrote
Bad Santa -- and the main players weigh in on the film.

There are also deleted scenes, and these are a bit more interesting than
most because they're not just extraneous bits swept off the cutting room floor
and repackaged as a supplement. We can see here how some scenes were shifted
about, and how sequences that ended up in the film were originally intended to
be used elsewhere. We also get a variety of trailers, some of which are
definitely not suitable for "general audiences."

The Rebuttal Witnesses

In the supplemental material, it's stated more than once that this is
"not a gay movie."

While I hate to disagree with the people who actually made the film, I
Love You, Phillip Morris is a gay movie. It's not Brokeback Mountain
somber gay or The Adventures Of Priscilla, Queen Of The Desert campy gay,
but it's a movie about a man who devises wild schemes to keep his male partner
happy, and it features lots of guy-on-guy oral sex jokes.

The film was completed in 2009, but had distribution problems; I've read
accounts where these problems were attributed to bad business decisions, and
others that suggested that the content held up distribution.

How much of this was bad business and how much content, I can't say. I can
see where I Love You, Phillip Morris might be a hard sell, and that's a
shame.

But it's also kind of a shame when the people involved in the making of the
film feel they have to explain it off by insisting, "It's not a gay
movie." Maybe they're right and I'm wrong, but even if it is a "gay
movie," what's wrong with that?

While I respect the idea of not pigeonholing the movie, it just seems
strange that at this point in the history of civilization, people still feel
compelled to make these self-conscious codas, particularly for a film as
charming and funny as this, and particularly in the supplements of the disc -- I
think it's safe to assume that people who are watching the featurette or
listening to the commentary have already seen the film, made their own
determinations about Jim Carrey making out with Ewan McGregor, and really don't
need a warning or revisionist take.

Closing Statement

I Love You, Phillip Morris is a tremendously funny and inventive
comedy; it's also a quirky and moving look at love and the crazy things we do to
find it and keep it. Highly recommended.